Full Tilt Poker Omaha Hi/Lo Tips

Skilled Texas Hold’em players often make the migration over to Omaha Hi/Lo at some point in their poker careers and usually when they do, they’re left wondering why they hadn’t done so sooner. This is because Omaha Hi/Lo is the preferred game of many of poker’s biggest fish. If you’re not familiar with the game you can learn more about how its played in the ‘Games Section’ of the Full Tilt Poker website.

There are several reasons fish are attracted to this game, for starters in Omaha Hi/Lo starting hand requirements are much looser. In Texas Hold’em there are several types of hands such as premium hands, good hands, position hands, drawing hands and of course unplayable hands. In Omaha Hi/Lo there are really only two types of hands – playable ones and non playable ones – and even when the non playable ones are played they’ll win more often in Omaha Hi/lo than non playable hands would win in Hold’em. Obviously fish who put there money in bad often will love a game that gives them the best chance to occasionally suck out.

Even though fish might suck out on occasion in Omaha Hi/Lo, more often than not good players will prevail over the course of a session. While all forms of poker require practice and usually studying and personal play analysis to master, this guide here is enough to help an experienced Hold’em player learn enough to beat the Omaha Hi/Lo games at Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Omaha Hi/Lo Strategy and Tips

First of all let me preference that the strategy contained in this article applies to Full Tilt Poker’s Omaha High/Low full ring games only, in both pot limit and fixed limit variants. My personal opinion is that short handed and Omaha Hi/Lo mix about as well as mayonnaise mixes with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This is of course just my personal opinion, so let me just leave it as saying: I’m not experienced enough at short handed play to cover it in this article.

The first step to beating the Full Tilt Poker’s Omaha Hi/Lo games is the same first step required to maximize profit at all games; scout the site for a while till you find a good seat position in the ideal game. If you‘re not familiar with this concept or not already doing this before reading any further, and for that matter: before ever playing another hand of online poker, read my Full Tilt Holdem Strategy page.

Assuming you’re now in an ideal seat with a table you’ve properly scouted the next thing you’ll need in your arsenal is starting hand requirements: In the fixed limit form of this game you can get away with playing a lot more hands then you can in the pot limit version. This is because in fixed limit Omaha Hi/Lo position is less of a factor – yes position is obviously important in all forms of poker, however; in Omaha Hi/Lo fixed limit at showdown usually the nuts (nut high and if a low is on the board nut low as well) will take down the pot – everyone can see what the nuts are so the only benefits of position are to save or gain an extra bet on occasion because players will often call with second nut because of the large pot odds. Let’s start with fixed limit starting hands:

Fixed Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Starting Hands:

Early position: In early position stick to playing hands that contain an Ace and a two or a three to go with it as well as one other card to a wheel (A24X, A25X , A23X, A35X etc) as well as non ace hands that have a two, three other cards to a wheel and a fourth straight card. For example (2347, 2457 etc): If you find yourself in a game where there are a lot of raises preflop you’ll want to play less of the none ace hands preflop. If you’re in a real passive game with little preflop raising you’ll want to play a few more hands such as A45X and suited aces that also contain an additional wheel card.

Mid position: In mid position you’re able to open your starting hands up a little bit adding in hands like A45 and a suited Ace with a 2 or 3 to go with it.

Late position: In Omaha Hi/Lo you’re always looking to play hands that can win both the high and the low. Late position in unraised pots is the rare time you might consider adding good Omaha Hi hands to your Omaha Hi/Lo starting hand requirements. For example some playable late position hands include: KQJT, KKQT QQJT or even something like A4KQ if the aces is suited.

Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Starting Hands: For the most part you can stick to the same starting hands as mentioned about for fixed limit; however you’ll want to cut way back on playing hands without an ace in early position. In fact the only non ace hands I’d consider trying to get a cheap flop with might be 2345 and 2346 and I’d be ready to fold without seeing a flop if it comes back to me raised.

Omaha Hi/Lo Preflop Betting Strategies:

In Texas Hold’em games good players are often looking to narrow the field to give themselves the best chance to win – this is a common reason to raise preflop. In Omaha Hi/Lo a common reason to raise preflop is to get more money in the pot. In early position you’ll nearly always be limping even with big hands – this is because you’ll be inviting players to stay in the pot and don’t want to chase anyone away seeing as we’ll need to most likely make our hand to win anyways. In mid position if were given the chance to open for a raise were going to take it as it might give us position in the hand that will earn us or save us a bet later. In late position were going to raise anytime we have an ace hands with a two and another card to wheel – those are our premium hands and we want to build a pot in case we hit the flop. If we don’t hit the flop no big deal, all the times we do make our hand that late position raise will be worth it.

Omaha Hi/o Post Flop Betting Strategies:

A good Texas Hold’em play should not have much trouble figuring out how to play their hand after the flop. To put it simply a player calculates their implied and pot odds and makes proper decisions from there. There is however a few common mistake players, good players even, make when they’re new to Omaha Hi/Lo. The first is betting the low hand. If all you have is the low you call down when it’s cheap and fold when it’s costly as often times someone else will have the low too and at best you’re drawing to get ¼ of the pot. The other mistake players make is to raise other players out of the hands too often. When you have the nuts and someone else is betting you’ll need to consider the best strategy to extract the most money from each opponent – sometimes this is through raising and sometimes this is through calling. This is of course situational and will come almost naturally with experience.

Recommended Omaha Hi/Lo Resources

I recommend anyone serious about Omaha Hi/Lo read both Ray Zee’s book hi lo split poker for advanced players as well as Bobby Baldwin’s section of Doyle Brunson’s book Super Systems 2. I’ve come across a lot of flawed Omaha Hi/Lo books in my days and these two I mentioned are two of just a few good ones out on the market.

In addition to these books I suggest browsing websites such as playwinningpoker.com and forums such as 2+2 where a lot of coverage and discussion is available on Omaha Hi/Lo.

With just this basic Omaha Hi/Lo strategy mentioned here you should be ready to dive into at least the lower limit games at Full Tilt Poker. It’s a good idea to get some game experience under your belt while learning the game. To get started visit the Full Tilt Poker website.